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Zoe Heyn-Jone and Mary Grisey

Warp & Weft : Fibres, Film, and Feminist Collaboration in the Gallery Warp & Weft (2013), a collaboration between fibre artist Mary Grisey (MFA, York University) and experimental filmmaker Zo ë Heyn – Jones (PhD, Visual Art, York University) , was a process – bas ed exhibition that took place for 10 days in November 2013 at York University’s Goldfarb Centre for Fine Arts Special Projects Gallery. In the gallery space, Grisey planned, conceived, and created a floor – to – ceiling abstract we aving with hand – dyed fibres and repurposed metal. This corporeal and performative act of creation was captured in time – lapse on 16mm film by Heyn – Jones. The film was subsequently hand – developed onsite and hung up to dry in the gallery; the materiality, pro cesses, and labour inherent in both practices thereby resonating within the space. Perhaps the most salient facet of the project , however, was immaterial: opening up a space for the artists’ respective practices and collaboration to be made visible to the public and to each other facilitate d unparalleled and unique discussion. Issues of gendered labour and art practice , feminist/feminine aesthetics, conviviality, marginalized forms versus canonical works, and revisionist art histories were discussed in vari ous informal conversations throughout the duration of the project. This presentation will contextualize Warp & Weft within the wider discursive fields of contemporary feminist social practices and gendered labour in visual art. Grisey and Heyn – Jones will d iscuss the various valences of these concerns and show documentation of the project in order to address fundamental qu estions crucial to contemporary feminist art.